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Mitzpe Shalem

Israeli settlement in the West Bank

Summary

Israeli settlement in the West Bank

Field	Value
name	Mitzpe Shalem
image	Mitzpe Shalem2.JPG
foundation	1970
founded_by	Nahal
country	Palestine
region	West Bank
district	js
council	Megilot
affiliation	formerly Kibbutz Movement
popyear
population
population_footnotes
pushpin_map	Israel south wb
pushpin_mapsize	250
coordinates
hebname	מִצְפֵּה שָׁלֵם

Mitzpe Shalem () is an Israeli settlement and former kibbutz in the eastern West Bank. Located near Highway 90 about 21 km north of Ein Gedi and 10 km north of the Green Line about 1 km from the western shores of the Dead Sea, it is the southernmost community under the jurisdiction of Megilot Regional Council. In it had a population of .

It was established in 1970 on land belonging to the Palestinian Bedouin village of ‘Ayn Trayba. The international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, but the Israeli government disputes this.

History

The community was founded in 1970 as a Nahal settlement on land in the West Bank that Israel occupied in the 1967 Six-Day War. It was inhabited as a kibbutz in the Ihud HaKvutzot VeHaKibbutzim in 1976.

Today it has undergone privatization and is considered a cooperative community, thus no longer belonging to the Kibbutz Movement. It was named after Natan Shalem who investigated the Judean Desert, where the kibbutz is located.

Economy

The economy of the kibbutz depends on agriculture, tourism and industry. In agriculture, the kibbutz has an orchard of palm trees with an area of about 400 dunams and a coop for raising turkeys. Tourism used to include the Mineral Beach on the Dead Sea, with its sulfur-enhanced baths, and an organized swimming beach, now closed due to damage caused by sinkholes; and a motel named for the nearby Deragot Cliffs. The industry is derived from the manufacture of Ahava Skin Care products in the local company's laboratories. In September 2016 Ahava was sold to a Chinese conglomerate, but was not relocated and still offers working places to the community.

Ahava manufactures cosmetics based on minerals from the Dead Sea. A factory for refining these chemicals is located in the kibbutz. In 2009 a boycott campaign targeted the company for its activities in the West Bank. Protests were held in cosmetics stores in Israel and the United States. The Israeli human rights group B'tselem has said that exploitation of resources of occupied territory is prohibited by international law and has called on the Israeli government to end such practices.

References

(1 February 2020). "Established Practice: Palestinian Exclusion at the Dead Sea". [[Journal of Palestine Studies]].
(10 December 2009). "The Geneva Convention". BBC News.
[http://www.deadsea.com/articles-tips/interesting-facts/dead-sea-kibbutzim-lives-dead-sea/ Dead Sea Kibbutzim: Who lives at the Dead Sea?] Dead Sea
Shalev, Anat. (2009-07-30). "Code Pink protest calls for Ahava boycott". Ynet.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

kibbutzim kibbutz-movement populated-places-established-in-1970 israeli-settlements-in-the-west-bank nahal-settlements 1970-establishments-in-the-israeli-military-governorate

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